


Kaboom

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Series: Prompt Fics [53]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Child Death, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Nightmares, War flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: Jack has a nightmare and Mac comforts him
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: Prompt Fics [53]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540795
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	Kaboom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rai_Knightshade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rai_Knightshade/gifts).



> I did not mean for this to get so dark I swear 😳

Jack is usually still when he sleeps.

Or rather, _if_ he sleeps.

Mac had only seen the man sleep a handful of times, since Jack was always the last to fall asleep and first to rise, though there were occasions such as this power-nap on the Phoenix jet in which he would be able to observe the man’s sleeping habits.

Jack typically sleeps on his back, or his side, his arms tucking a blanket to his chest–which is what had given Mac the idea to gift him the Cowboys Snuggie that was more of a traveling possession through the team than his own at this point–his nose would often twitch, his ears perk up at the slightest of sounds, he isn’t a snorer, and his pattern of sleeping could easily be thought of as “usual.”

But this, however, is not usual.

And it isn’t unusual in the sense that Jack had been knocked unconscious, which was the only other circumstance that Mac had really seen the man “sleep,” because Jack is certainly conscious on some level, trapped on a level of _sub_ consciousness, and one that he is thrashing to get out of.

“Jack? Jack!” 

Jack is muttering, his breath short and rapid, squeezing his eyes shut and when he opens them, he’s not looking at Mac, they rapidly dart from one corner to the other, up and down and Mac gets dizzy just watching them, as Jack fights against the decorated blanket. 

Mac is tentative to touch Jack, fearing he’d further frighten the man, and opts to use comforting words instead, words Jack has spoken to him countless times.

“Shh, it’s okay, Jack, follow me, follow the sound of my voice.” 

Jack’s whimpering now, his eyes squeezed tight again, sweat pouring from the creases in his skin.

“M-Mac?” he whispers.

“Yeah, it’s me, I’m right here. C’mon, let’s get you out of there,” Mac affirms, and Jack reaches out cautiously, his hand trembling, fingers flexing out. 

“That’s it, big lug, that’s it. I’m going to touch you now, okay? And bring you back. Count of three, one…two…”

Mac gently lifts a hand underneath Jack’s fingers, allowing them to rest on his palm, and uses his other hand to fully encase Jack’s hand in his own.

“Mac,” Jack blinks. “Wh-Where am I?” 

“Shh, you were having a nightmare,” Mac whispers. “You’re on the Phoenix jet.”

“Oh… _oh,_ shit, did I wake–”

“Just you and me.” 

Jack groans, tossing his head back against the seat as he wrestles his hand out of Mac’s hand-sandwich. 

“You wanna talk about it?” 

“Not really,” Jack gulps in a thick voice. He kneads his eyes with the butt of his palms, taking in a sharp, shaky inhale before he holds it, and releases it as a deep, loud exhale. 

“It was a sandbox dream,” he sighs heavily. “Before you, though.”

A beat, and Jack adjusts his position in his seat, sitting up stiffly, crumbling the blanket into a ball between his hands. 

“I ever tell you about him? The bomb tech before you?” 

He looks to Mac, eyes wide and reddened, and Mac shakes his head, his expression blank, but soft, ready to listen.

“I always toldja that all of the EODs I protected made it home, safe and sound. And that’s not a lie, they did, but this…this one…he had a _massive_ burn out. We all do, at some point, I guess, y-you know, have those bad rotations.”

Mac nods, remembering the last “bad rotation” Jack had opened up to him about–or rather the aftermath of it, of Worthy helping him break through a serious bout of depression.

“Thing was…his burn out happened… _during_ the rotation. During a mission, at the worst possible time.”

Jack’s tongue slips out, licks over lips. 

“This guy, he…he was something, but… I thought…we were _unstoppable._ We had a good system going, worked well with each other, _got along_. Honestly closest thing I had to a friend since the Deltas, you–you would’ve rolled your eyes at us cause all we did was quote Bruce Willis back and forth all day,” Jack chuckles.

Mac chuckles too, adjusts his posture, so that he’s leaning forward, his fingers gently netted into each other. He watches as Jack’s gaze shifts out to the window overlooking the clouds. 

“We were out on patrol and we stumbled across this little village, I swear to you, half of the population was…was…”

Jack’s chin wobbles as water shines in his eyes. Mac wants to tell him it’s okay, he doesn’t have to say it, but he says it anyway.

“Kids. Some young, some old, but they were kids. They were just _kids,_ Mac. And there-there was some stupid ass land mine right smack-dab in the middle of a little baseball square they had done up for themselves.”

Jack’s face crumbles, and Mac reaches out, grabs his knee.

“Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to–”

“No, no, hoss, I-I gotta just…I gotta let it out, I think. If…if that’s okay?” Jack asks. 

“Of course, Jack, of course,” Mac affirms. Keeping his hand on Jack’s knee, he gets up and moves to the seat next to Jack, though Jack’s body is still looking towards the window. 

“I managed to clear out the kids, get them to play somewhere else, but one of them straggled behind, and older one–even had a bit of a ‘stache going, cause their ball had landed right on top of the bomb…and a sandstorm was kicking up.” 

Jack lets out a small laugh of absurdity, one of the coldest, most callous laughs Mac had ever heard out of the man, it was almost unsettling. 

“With that set-up, I’m sure I don’t hafta tell you…It was the most fucked up game of baseball ever.” 

His laugh hiccuped into a sob. 

“A-and this kid, he just…wouldn’t leave without this damn ball, tried to jump the tech, tech shrugged him off, but in all the action…the ball was knocked off, and they were blown back.” 

Jack didn’t have to say the rest, as he he turned to look at Mac in the eyes, his face red and stricken with tears. 

But he said it anyway. 

“The kid didn’t make it.” 

“But the tech did.” 

Jack nodded, contorting his face tightly in a nod, and Mac pulled him in, hugging his head to his chest, petting the top of his faux hawk as Jack heaved into his shirt. 

“Shh, let everything out.” 

“I tried, Mac! I tried to save them, both of them, tried to tackle them outta the way, that’s how I got this–” Jack slapped against the scorched patch of skin on his arm, the remnants of a burned glaze that Mac used to assume was a bullet, though the tread was too wide for such–and now he realized, it was the ball. “The k-kid…didn’t….it wasn’t the blast, it was just…the weight. C-crushed. Under both of us.” 

“That was a brave thing you did,” Mac told him. “You could have lost both of them.” 

“That’s what I to–keep telling myself b-but…this EOD tech, he…he couldn’t. Not after that. Got discharged shortly after…but not wi-without telling me off, first. Can still hear him screaming at me, telling me how I should have done more to save the kid, how _he_ should have been the one to get crushed, how _he should have just went kaboom_.” 

He’s suddenly reminded of a different scream, from a different body, to Jack, to his face, and Jack’s self-deprecating rebuttal, _“It’s all Jack’s fault.”_

But it’s not Jack’s fault.

It never was.

“A-and I wish…I really wish it…it was me, instead, outta either of them. _I_ should have been the one…to go…” Jack’s voice trails off, and Mac strokes the tears out of Jack’s face. “Damn near did, afterwards, the…the tech kinda stopped giving two shits about me after that. Almost came back home like a disassembled puzzle.”

“You did all you could, Jack. You always do. You’re one of the bravest and most honorable men I ever met.” 

Despite the warm words, Jack shakes under Mac’s arms. Mac gently tugs the blanket out from Jack’s arms, and Jack immediately latches onto Mac’s shirt instead, as he fought against his body retching sobs. Mac unfurls the blanket and covers them both, and begins to rub Jack’s back.

“And I got you. I do. I got you. And if it came down to it, I know you and I? We’d go kaboom… _together.”_


End file.
